The 2027 budget is a “common sense” budget – Senyo Hosi

Convener of the OneGhana Movement and Finance and Economic Policy Analyst, Senyo Hosi, has described the government’s 2027 budget as a “great common-sense budget”, praising its focus on revenue generation, expenditure discipline and economic stability.

He said the government had shown greater efficiency in raising revenue and responsibility in managing public spending, adding that the country needed to build on the progress rather than turn the budget discussion into a political contest over who had performed better.

Speaking on JoyNews‘ Newsfile on Saturday, November 14, during a discussion on the 2027 budget, Mr Hosi said he did not often praise budgets in such terms but believed the 2027 financial plan deserved recognition.

“The budget, I must admit, is a great common-sense budget. It’s one of the most common-sense budgets. I don’t say that so often, you know, but this budget is very commonsensical,” he said.

He attributed his assessment to what he described as improvements in government revenue generation and expenditure management.

“I think the government has been more efficient and effective at revenue generation and more responsible at expenditure. Let’s give credit where credit is due,” he stated.

Mr Hosi urged Ghanaians and political actors to move beyond partisan comparisons and focus on how the country could improve its economic management.

He said the priority should be to identify what was working and determine how those gains could be sustained to benefit the wider economy.

“Let’s rather build, not on who did what more than the other, but how better we can do things. That’s the conversation I want us to start having,” he added.

While commending the government’s fiscal management, Mr Hosi said the next major task was to translate economic stability into increased production and opportunities for ordinary Ghanaians.

He said that discussions about fiscal consolidation and macroeconomic indicators should not lose sight of the people whose lives were affected by economic decisions.

“Because this is about real lives. It’s not about statistics. There are people, human beings behind every number that we are discussing here,” he said.

He acknowledged the importance of fiscal consolidation but argued that the country needed to move beyond stabilising the economy and focus on expanding productive activities.

“We are here; we understand the fiscal consolidation conversation. It’s great. But we need to see a proper transition from stability to production,” he stated.

Mr Hosi also referred to former Vice-President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia’s call for Ghana to move from taxation to production, saying the principle was not wrong, although the previous administration had failed to deliver on it.

“Bawumia was not wrong when he said we have to move from taxation to production. He wasn’t wrong. The only problem is that they didn’t deliver it in their time,” he said.

He said economies could only achieve sustainable growth when supported by responsible public spending and sound macroeconomic policies.

“Every economy can be built on proper fiscal discipline, proper macroeconomic structure, and it promises that,” he stated.

Mr Hosi also welcomed the government’s decision to make maintaining economic stability the first pillar of its economic agenda, saying this would provide the foundation for other development priorities.

“That’s why, in the new economy, the first thing I wanted, I liked the fact that you made it your pillar one to maintain that stability, because with that you can actually now achieve lower cost of funds,” he said.

He added that a stable economic environment could allow Ghana to maintain relatively low interest rates while ensuring positive real interest rates, creating a more predictable environment for businesses and investors.

“We can actually still have low interest rates and still have positive real interest rates and build a pathway for investments,” he said.